Cimbrone

Nina--There is absolutely nothing wrong with your post or with your having done what you needed to do to get on the flight for which you purchased tickets. What your very meaningful post tells me is that the airlines are playing games with us, and, should I face a situation like yours, I need to do just as you did.

The hysterical poster who chewed you out for no good reason has a clear personality disorder, if you ask me.

Celiaanne

I think the attitude and workings of the airlines are awful. You buy a ticket in good faith for a date and time that you want/need. You are forbidden to many ANY changes whatsoever without paying a hefty charge. If you can't use the tickets, too bad for you. We can't give it to anyone, even a family member. Why? Please don't say 9/11, it was that way long before then.

On the other hand, the airlines are free to move our seats, change our times, and even change our dates, and we are expected to just accept it. How do they get away with this? I've never understood it. We pay for the ticket and they have all the control...

jsmith

Just keep in mind you can believe everything Nina66 says - unless, of course, when it isn't the truth.

LoveItaly

I have stopped flying with United because of cancelled flights, flights delayed hours (obviously because they didn't have as many passengers as they wanted on a flight and so made everyone wait for a flight that wasn't departing for hours). Through my supermarket purchased I receive United FF miles. From time to time I call United and donate the miles to our military people that can use them once they are on US soil but need to get to their home area.

BTW, ever problem I have had with United has been when I have paid for the tickets.

TexasAggie

Hi LoveItaly,
That is a wonderful idea to donate the miles! We have odd amounts of FF miles in several programs that we no longer use. Thank you for sharing the news on this (and incidentally, I'm not surprised it was you to know about something like this b/c you are one of the most generous posters I know!).

LoveItaly

Hi there Texas Aggie, how are you? Hope life is treating you well.

Actually I have to give my stepson the credit for donating the FF miles. I had various FF a/c's with miles but not enough to take advantage of anything. We were talking and I mentioned it. He then told me that I could donate the miles (I never knew) for our military personnel OR also to Make A Wish that gives very ill children a "dream come true". Who knew? So I would encourage anyone who has FF a/c's that will never be useful for free flights to call the airline(s) and see where they can be donated.
You take care, good to hear from you!!

rkkwan

Celianne - You can do all what you want if you buy a full-fare ticket. On some airlines, you may even get a complimentary upgrade to first class! Imagine that!

And if you count for inflation, I would think even full-fare tickets today are still cheaper than they are 30 years ago.

Nobody forces you to buy discount fares.

LoveItaly

Hi rkkwan, not to continue the discussion but I have had full fare tickets purchased from United..but it didn't do me any good when the flight was cancelled..and that happened too many times (flying the westcoast).

Girlspytravel

P.S. I would change the title of this post to say "United Reservation Change-JUST worry about ME, I'm the ONLY CUSTOMER THAT MATTERS."

piney

Perhaps a minor event to some but interesting and informative to others. Why on earth should anyone be annoyed at Nina for her posting??
Some people on this board need to lose the big chips on their shoulders that are about to turn into boulders.
Why do you need to respond with criticism?
This posting generated some interesting information and I see nothing wrong with it.
What seems wrong are the angry little folks with chips on their shoulders.

LindaL

Interesting, Nina. My experience was somewhat similiar when I discovered VA cancelled 2 returning flights home for me and one of my friends (but not the third friend) when I called to re-confirm the day before we were due to fly home. The reason I was given for the cancellation was that we missed our connection in Heathrow when we flew into London. I wonder if they expected us to stay in London the rest of our lives. It took six phone calls (they also cannot call out on their incoming only phones) and most of my last day in Rome to get re-confirmed.

rkkwan

LoveItaly - if you have full-fare tickets and your flight get cancelled, just have UA endorse it over to any other airline. Or just refund it and buy a different one on another airline.

[Don't know if other airlines have this perk, but if you're a Continental elite, you can buy full-fare tickets on even sold-out flights. Must be 48 hours in advance for silver/gold, no limit for platinum.]

LoveItaly

Hi rkkwan, I am talking about constant flights between SFO and Santa Barbara. What other flights? It happened so many times when I was flying back and forth between the two airports I don't even want to think about it. I will not fly United again.

DMary

wow, someone on this post has a major chip on her shoulder!
Can we start a new conversation about off-shore call centers and how incompetent they are?

sashh

Not sure if this fits but call centres - my friend is currently on a round the world trip. He tried to book with BA - gave them the itinery and they said it would have to go to ticketing and it would take 48 hours. 6 days later they were still saying they didn't know the price so he decided to call AA to see if they could come up with a price quicker.

While he was on the phone to AA his mobile went, I answered the call, it was BA - they were quite angry that he's phoned AA because that meant he had cancelled one of the flights they had booked. I was told to tell him to stop talking to AA and rebook with BA.

AA could give him a price there and then, so in July guess who he flew with?

rkkwan

LoveItaly - True, in your case, if you get into SFO and then your flight get cancelled, it doesn't do you much good. Except perhaps have them fly you down to LAX and then back up to SBA.

But just to set the record straight. SFO-SBA is run by Skywest on contract for UA Express.

Also, it's true around the country that regional flights get cancelled much more frequently than mainlines. It's a price you pay when living in a smaller city.

Giovanna

Good for you Nina. You did what it takes to conduct business these days. If it isn't incompetence, it's downright lying--so you do what you have to do to make life tolerable.

The experience we had with United the first time we used FF miles for a flight to Italy was a real charmer. At that time, they had a gate in Milan. However, they were only able to get us to Zurich with two plane changes in Canada on a Canadian airline (we were able to change this to only one plane change in Toronto). We got to pay for an overnight airport hotel room and our tickets from Zurich to Rome on the now defunct Swiss Air. We should have pursued this as you did Nina and perhaps we would have made better arrangements. We were pretty green and just put up with it, but we did stop flying with them.

Another experience with them was a lost day on a trip to London. They put us up at an SFO airport hotel. I did write a letter of complaint on that occasion and while not admitting any wrongdoing they did give us something, I think it was either money off our next tickets, or buy one flight and companion flies free. Nothing would have been done had I not been persisent in writing letters.

We just went through a mess with routing made by a cruise line for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise which starts in Acapulco. They had us flying to LAX from OAK with a plane change, then to Chicago with a five hour layover and plane change on to Acapulco. 15 hours--we could have gone to Europe faster!!! We managed to make different arrangements at a cost of $100 for cancelling their terrific arrangements.

So, needless to say Nina, I'm in full agreement with your displeasure and the manner in which you handled it. It isn't "all about me," it's about the way people are treated nowadays, and sadly not just by airlines. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right?"

Nina66

First off, these were not free $1,000 tickets. We used 60,000 FF miles per ticket, plus $1466m each, to upgrade. This is absolutely the highest fare we have ever paid - probably because we are flying out Christmas weekend. This was not by choice, DH recently started a new job and so has no vacation time to speak of. His office is closed over the holidays, so he has six paid days off, plus the two weekends. He added a day before and a four days after, giving us two full weeks in Paris. So I have every right to expect what I originally paid for. Not that that is a guarantee that I will get it, but I feel that I am entitled to it. Me, me, me .....

Kerouac - two contradictory posts -

".......Airlines and travel agencies have made an industry of lying because most people accept the lie..... The biggest ripost is to lie right back to them."

Then in your second post you chastize me for not telling a big lie! So in your mind, there are degrees of lying? Please post your scale of acceptable lies for specific occasions, for future reference. I was taught that a lie is a lie, size doesn't matter.

i am kane - the locator number with Lufthansa is the same as my original locator number with United. That hasn't changed.

Ira .... ready for this and this really is the TRUTH. I finally got my _first_ "Travel Itinerary" approx. three hours after my last telephone call to United. Since it was not an E-Ticket with all of the particulars, I called them back and asked them to send an E-Ticket Receipt not just the Itinerary.

That was at approx. 1:30PPM (PST). Since then I have received SEVENTY THREE Itinerary and/or E-Ticket Receipts over a ten hour period. Yes ... SEVENTY THREE. It is now 12:11AM (PST) and they are still coming. Some are dated October 19th and some October 20th!!!!

So dear Ira, in answer to your question, yes I have received my E-Ticket

DH says that obviously there is something wrong with United's system.

When I am online, I can hear a 'bing' sound everytime I receive an email. I've heard two more while I have been writing this post. It is now 12:15AM (PST), so I am assuming that I am now up to 75 or 76 E-Tickets!

At this rate, my mailbox will be full by morning - even though I deleted 72 of them already. I'm afraid to call them about this glitch, gawd knows what will happen to my reservation if I do

ME, I mean Nina

Nina66

Thanks to all of you who understood why I had to do what I did, and who have been through the samething yourselves. Giovanna, you did the right thing too - who will defend consumers if we won't stand up for ourselves?

It's like buying a new car and when you get home it stops running. You call the dealer and he tells you that they sold you a car, they didn't guarantee that it would run. That may sound silly, but it is exactly how I feel. If you deal with a plumber etc, you have to be a plumber, or an electrician, or a contractor, etc... to keep up with the ways they can screw over you.

Ira ... sorry to inform you that I will not be getting any more receipts or itineraries from United. After 75, I decided to call them. The agent said that they were not separate messages, but that my server was refusing them and they were bouncing back to United and being resent. I told him that I had received 75 and they came through loud and clear, so it could not have been on my end.

_Finally_ he agreed to check with 'someone', and after being put on hold for 15 minutes at 1:00AM (PST), he returned and proudly announced that he had solved the problem and that I wouldn't be getting any more emails from them. I guess the romance is over

Nina